Author: nina hovnanian

Armenian Industrial Board’s inaugural session clarifies major industry sectors

news.am
March 17, 2012 | 17:15

YEREVAN. – Armenian PM Tigran Sargsyan chaired first session of the
Prime Ministerial Industrial Board.

During the session, Economy Minister Tigran Davtyan noted that three
branch councils were formed within his ministry, and on the
state-private sector principle, the Government Press Service informed
Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The Minister informed that, in accordance with the industrial
strategy, Armenia’s export is planned be doubled by the year 2015 and
reach US$ 2.1 billion, and to be tripled by 2020 and reach $2.8-3.3
billion. In line with the Economy Minister’s report, Armenia’s
industrial growth constituted 14.1 percent in 2011. And the total
industrial approached AMD 1 trillion (approx. $2,558,430,257). The
industry’s share in the country’s GDP likewise increased.

Tigran Davtyan also noted that the legislative basis for the creation
of free economic zones is fully developed, too.

In the Minister’s words, the state’s assistance to the private sector
is being implemented with success, and, as a result, investment
projects totaling AMD 85 billion (approx. $217,466,571) will be
carried out.

Afterward, the Board clarified the country’s major industry sectors,
and in accordance with their branches.

Also, the session pointed to the directions in which the state will
provide technical and financial support to the private sector.

The session participants also discussed the allocating of some
subsidies for the interest rates of the loans being provided from the
state resources and which are intended for production and export
programs.

LARGEST RAILWAY BRIDGE TO BE RECONSTRUCTED IN ARMENIA

/ARKA/
MARCH 16, 2012
YEREVAN

YEREVAN, March 16. /ARKA/. The Russian-owned South Caucasus Railways
(SCR), operating Armenia’s rail roads, said it has embarked on
reconstruction of the largest railway bridge in Armenia, built in
the late XIX century.

According to a company press release, currently a new bridge is being
built parallel to the old one which will be used by the railroad.

After reconstruction the length of the bridge will be 161 meters. The
total estimated cost of the project is about 1.7 billion drams (4.3
million U.S. dollars). Construction will be completed in April 2012.

The bridge across Zamanlu Gorge was built in 1898 and was the largest
bridge in tsarist Russia. Its length is 256 m, the height is 26
meters. After commissioning of the new bridge, the old bridge will
be used as a museum.

“In keeping with its policy of supporting Armenian business, the SCR
has chosen as a contractor an Armenian company Kamurjshin,” SCR said.

South Caucasus Railways, a 100-percent subsidiary of Russian Railways,
runs Armenian Railway. Armenian Railways was handed over to the
South Caucasus Railways on February 13, 2008 for 30-year concession
management with a right to prolong the management term for other 10
years.

E. NALBANDIAN: ADVANCEMENT FAILED AS AZERBAIJAN WITHDRAWS FROM AGREEMENTS

Panorama.am
16/03/2012

Advancement in Karabakh conflict is failed because Azerbaijan
withdraws from agreements reached during the negotiations, Armenian
FM Eduard Nalbandian said in a joint news conference with German
FM Guido Westerwelle, answering to a German reporter’s question why
advancement isn’t materialized in the resolution of Karabakh conflict.

“Such statements used to happen repeatedly, before Sochi meeting, a
year ago in March the presidents focused on a number of issues. They
are halted as Azerbaijan has, in fact, withdrawn from the agreements.

In particular, agreement was reached to establish mechanisms for
investigation of incidents occurring on the contact line. Within
a year Azerbaijan has done everything to fail those mechanisms,”
Armenian FM said.

He has underlined that OSCE Minsk group co-chairs have made such a
recommendation in April 2011, and Armenia expressed commitment to it.

“Later in October Armenia again expressed commitment to a
recommendation made by the three presidents.

Azerbaijan has not yet confirmed the recommendation, but appeared with
a threat that veto would be imposed on OSCE budget if a single penny
was allocated to the establishment of those mechanisms. Thus, this is
one of examples why advancement is failed: we reach to an agreement,
while Azerbaijan does quite different things,” E. Nalbandian said.

Armenian FM called Baku’s statements claiming that inefficient mission
of OSCE Minsk group co-chairing states obstructs advancement of the
conflict unfounded. Armenian FM underlined that supported by Russian
President Dmitry Medvedev over 10 meetings at the level of presidents
or foreign ministers took place during the last 2-3 years, and the
co-chairs have traveled to Baku, Stepanakert and Yerevan many times.

“Even in Sochi President of Azerbaijan hailed the group’s mission,
when heads of Armenia and Azerbaijan expressed their hope that the
co-chairs would continue their mission unless peace was established in
the region. Following Sochi meeting, where president makes a statement,
Azerbaijan addressed criticism to the co-chairs,” concluded Armenian
FM.

ARMENIAN FM: AZERBAIJAN’S ACTIONS DOOM KARABAKH PROCESS TO FAILURE

PanARMENIAN.Net
March 16, 2012 – 13:29 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – Azerbaijan blocks every move undertaken by Armenia
and the international mediators, first of all within the OSCE Minsk
Group activities, Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said at
a joint press conference with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle
on March 16 in Yerevan.

When asked by a German reporter what actions are taken to facilitate
the process of Karabakh conflict settlement, Nalbandian said Azerbaijan
refuses to comply with most agreements reached at top level.

Nalbandian quoted the example of the presidents’ meeting in Sochi
where Armenia and Azerbaijan, with Russia’s mediation, agreed to
create a mechanism to stop regular violations of cease fire at the
contact line. Azerbaijan however threatened to “veto” the OSCE budget
if resources are allotted for establishment of this tool.

At the same meeting in Sochi both sides confirmed efficiency of Minsk
Group activities and expressed commitment to continue negotiations
within this format.

Upon return to Baku, Aliyev made a number of statements saying the
OSCE Minsk Group has been exhausted, and the platform for negotiations
needs to be changed.

Nalbandian said these are just a few of the numerous destructive
actions undertaken by Azerbaijani side.

Non-compliance by Azerbaijan of its commitments dooms the negotiation
process to failure, Minister added.

At January 23 trilateral presidential meeting in Sochi Presidents
of Armenia and Azerbaijan stressed the need to refrain from extreme
measures, calling for continuation of approximating positions.

“Considering the importance of shifting to development of peace
agreement, Presidents of Armenia and Azerbaijan expressed readiness to
expedite an agreement on Basic principles,” Russian Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov said, adding that heads of the two states had requested
Russia to mediate humanitarian ties between the two countries.

LINGERING LINKAGE: TURKEY STILL MAKES ITS RELATIONS WITH ARMENIA CONDITIONAL ON KARABAKH SETTLEMENT
By Naira Hayrumyan

ArmeniaNow
16.03.12 | 12:34

Turkey does not cease to link the normalization of its relations
with Armenia to progress in the Karabakh settlement that would favor
its regional ethnic cousin Azerbaijan. Despite the fact that world
leaders have repeatedly called for an unconditional rapprochement,
officials in Ankara keep making references to the conflict between
its two Caucasus neighbors.

Turkey fully supports Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
settlement, Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey Bekir Bozdag told
media in Baku earlier this week. “Until Armenia withdraws from
Nagorno-Karabakh, until the rights of Azerbaijanis in the region are
restored, Turkish-Armenian relations will not be normalized. We want
a peaceful resolution of this conflict that will take place within
a short time and we will continue our efforts in this direction,”
he said. At the same time, the senior Turkish official stressed that
Karabakh is a native land for Azeris and Turks.

Yerevan’s response came shortly as Deputy Speaker of the Armenian
Parliament Eduard Sharmazanov said that “not only Artsakh is the native
Armenian land that has no historical connection with Turkic tribes,
but also the state that this Turkish official is a citizen of.” “Let
me remind you that modern-day Turkey was founded on historical Greek
and Armenian lands after the annihilation of the indigenous Armenian
and Greek population,” stressed Sharmazanov. He added that “Azerbaijan
must withdraw its troops from occupied Shahumyan and Getashen, and
the Turks must withdraw from Northern Cyprus.”

The issue of linkage of the Turkish-Armenian process and the Karabakh
settlement was also addressed in a recent monograph by David Phillips,
a renowned American political scientist who was actively involved in
Turkish-Armenian dialogue in the early 2000s.

The United States has its share of the blame for the failure of
the efforts of recent years in settlement of relations between
Armenia and Turkey, Phillips concluded in his extensive work that was
recently published by the Columbia University in New York. According
to Phillips, the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama did
not do enough to stop the Turkish government linking parliamentary
ratification of the 2009 Turkish-Armenian normalization agreements
with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He also called for a U.S. “policy
review” on Armenia-Turkey that would consider the possibility of
officially recognizing the 1915 Armenian massacres in the Ottoman
Empire as genocide.

The question of linking the Turkish-Armenian reconciliation process
and the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, apparently,
also became the reason for which the U.S. administration stopped
short of reconfirming Matthew Bryza, a former OSCE Minsk Group
co-chair representing the United States, as the country’s ambassador
to Azerbaijan. The Armenian lobby had actively opposed the appointment
of Bryza at the ambassadorial post in Baku, in the end, after a year
of work there he had to leave the post.

Bryza gave an interesting interview to the Turkish newspaper,
Hurriyet, in which he warned the current U.S. administration that the
“artificial” assertion that there is no link between the settlement of
the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the Turkish-Armenian normalization
condemns to death the prospects of resolving the conflict. “In fact,
Armenia gains a huge benefit from the opening of its border with
Turkey without any compromise in the Karabakh issue,” said Bryza.

Such frankness of the American diplomat may be evidence that, as an
ambassador who served in Azerbaijan for a year, he was doing everything
for the Karabakh problem to stand in the way of Turkish-Armenian
relations. And he did so in defiance of his administration, which has
repeatedly stated that these two issues should not be linked together.

It is not ruled out that the U.S. Department of State held Bryza
responsible for disrupting the Turkish-Armenian process, as Baku’s
position became a major obstacle to that normalization.

“The U.S. should focus on a breakthrough in Karabakh, which is
achievable. The breakthrough would be a framework agreement on the
peaceful settlement,” thinks Bryza.

The world leaders, however, still appear to have a different opinion.

Their actions reveal they are not after changing the Karabakh status
quo by all means, despite efforts by Turkey and Azerbaijan to make
Armenia retreat from its positions accompanied by threats to solve
the conflict militarily.

AIR DEFENCE UNITS OF RUSSIAN MILITARY BASE IN ARMENIA MOVED TO ALAGYAZ POLYGON

arminfo
Friday, March 16, 14:45

The encampment of the air defence units of the Russian military base,
deployed in Armenia, started the 100 km long march towards the
highland training center Alagyaz on 15 March, press-service of the
South Military Command of Russian Federation reported.

The encampment will last for more than a month and end with special
tactical exercises and field firing.

Over 150 soldiers and 20 units will participate in the tactical
exercises of the Russian military base units. During the last phase
the participants will learn defensive and offensive actions.

ARMENIAN UNIVERSITIES FIND NO PLACE IN WORLD UNIVERSITY RANKINGS 2011-2012

arminfo
Friday, March 16, 15:00

Armenian universities have found no place The Times Higher Education
World University Rankings 2011-2012 (Top 600 universities for
2011-2012 education year). Top three universities were Harvard
University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cambridge. The
top 100 universities included 44 universities of in the USA and 10
in Great Britain. The ranking was prepared on the basis of polls
among 17.5 professors and teachers from 137 countries. Minister of
Education and Science of Armenia Armen Ashotyan comments on the
given situation on his Facebook profile page: “At the moment, we
have more modest aspirations: to have at least 5 universities with
international accreditation within 5 years and to bring the average
level of the higher education to the level of Eastern Europe (Poland,
Czech Republic, Baltic States).”

At the same time, Yerevan State University was lately announced the
Best University in South Caucasus after it rose from the last year’s
2856 position to 1880 in the rating of “Webometrics Ranking of World
Universities”.

Since 2004, the Ranking Web (or Webometrics Ranking) is published
twice a year (data is collected during the first weeks of January
and July for being public at the end of both months), covering more
than 20,000 Higher Education Institutions worldwide. Four indicators
were obtained from the quantitative results provided by the main
search engines as follows: Size (S). Number of pages recovered from
four engines: Google, Yahoo, and Bing Search. Visibility (V). The
total number of unique external links received (inlinks) by a site,
according to Yahoo Site Explorer.

Rich Files (R). After evaluation of their relevance to academic and
publication activities and considering the volume of the different
file formats, the following were selected: Adobe Acrobat (.pdf),
Adobe PostScript (.ps), Microsoft Word (.doc) and Microsoft Powerpoint
(.ppt). These data were extracted using Google, Yahoo and Bing.

Scholar (Sc). The data is a combination of items published between 2006
and 2010 included in Google Scholar and the global output (2004.-2008)
obtained from Scimago SIR.

It is noteworthy that Khazar University took the 6233rd position
after it fell 22 position since 2010. Baku University took the 8833th
position, while the leading Georgian Ilia State University took the
2464th position.

MILITARY POLICE BEAT SOLDIER SEVERELY

Story from Lragir.am News:

Published: 12:12:50 – 16/03/2012

An outrageous case in the Military Police of Yerevan garrison of
the Armed Forces became known. On March 14 a group of soldiers were
arrested and beaten cruelly for a scuffle which happened a month ago
(please note this fact).

The initiative We’ll Not Silence has learned that the chief of the
Military Police of Yerevan garrison R. Nersisyan, the head of the
criminal investigation unit H. Vopanyan and the investigator of the
investigative unit A. Avagyan were involved in this bullying case.

One of the soldiers named Arsen of Sevan Town was injured more than
the others. To make him keep silent after beating him he was sent
back to the military unit and sent home on vacation and told him not
to tell anyone about it.

The behavior of the commander of the military unit is even more
disgusting. Not to spoil his relations with the Military Police, he
agreed to enter into this dirty game and accepted the beaten soldier
from the hands of the military police and sent him home.

It is notable that Arsen is now a witness to the scuffle case which
happened a month ago.

We would also like to note that bullying soldiers is a usual practice
in the Armenian army. It is especially frequent in the military units
of Nagorno-Karabakh where young people serve whose parents have
no influential connections. Bully officers feel free there. Even
if the high-ranking militaries at the general staff try to change
something but fail, they should admit they cannot keep the situation
under control.

One can imagine what is happening in remote military units and military
police stations. The only solution to this is not to keep silent. Our
young men must serve in the army without any problems.

We’ll Not Silence Initiative

FORMER EMPLOYEE SUES CAFESJIAN FOR BACK PAY
DAN BROWNING

Star Tribune

March 14, 2012 – 9:23 PM

John Waters Jr. claims his aging boss has grown paranoid and owes
him $5 million.

Gerard Cafesjian is best known in Minnesota as an art aficionado and
the primary benefactor who helped preserve the historic State Fair
carousel that now bears his name in Como Park.

The longtime director of Cafesjian’s family foundation says in a
federal lawsuit that Cafesjian was also a tough boss who has become
increasingly paranoid, miserly and vindictive as he has aged —
and who stiffed the employee out of more than $5 million in salary.

John Joseph Waters Jr., who started working for Cafesjian when he was
an executive at West Publishing, also claims that Cafesjian has tried
to damage his reputation and avoid paying back wages and benefits by
making unfounded allegations that Waters siphoned away Cafesjian’s
personal funds.

Neither Waters, 55, of Eden Prairie, nor Cafesjian, 86, responded
Wednesday to messages seeking comment. Cafesjian now lives in Naples,
Fla.

Waters filed the 47-page lawsuit without the help of an attorney. The
suit, filed Tuesday in St. Paul, says that in 1994 he went to work
for Cafesjian, who at the time oversaw sales and marketing at West
Publishing.

The suit says Cafesjian reaped about $300 million from his shares in
West when Thomson Corp., now Thomson Reuters, bought the company in
1996. Waters said he then went to work for Cafesjian’s “family office”
to manage his personal, business and philanthropic affairs.

Waters said he deeply admired Cafesjian but that he could be a
difficult and demanding boss.

“Cafesjian was extremely self-centered, exhibited what appeared to me
to be narcissistic characteristics and regularly exhibited delusions of
grandeur,” Waters says in the suit. “Cafesjian also suffered intense
paranoia and frequent, almost daily, outbursts of anger.”

Waters said he grew tired of the abuse and quit in 2009, but continued
doing odd tasks for Cafesjian until mid-2011.

Waters said he represented Cafesjian in business deals in Armenia and
elsewhere around the world. He said he served as Cafesjian’s point
man on a project to build a museum about the Armenian genocide. The
museum, in Washington, D.C., was stalled by litigation in 2008.

Waters said he learned in 2009 that Cafesjian had hired accountants
and lawyers to go over the books of his various holdings. He said he
learned that Cafesjian had made “outrageous and unfounded” allegations
against him as well as other employees, but continued to rely on his
services from until mid-2011.

The suit says that Rick Ostrum, a former FBI supervisor now working
as a private investigator for Waypoint Inc., in White Bear Lake,
told Waters in July that his firm had been hired to investigate
allegations that Waters had diverted cash from Cafesjian’s personal
checking account.

In December, Waters said, he was contacted by the FBI and told it
had opened an investigation.

Waters alleges that Cafesjian has tried to threaten and harass him
by contacting the FBI, by terminating contracts with firms “deemed
to be friendly to Waters,” by claiming to have Waters’ phone tapped
and by threatening other Cafesjian employees and associates who were
planning to attend Waters’ wedding.

Waters also has requested a temporary restraining order barring
Cafesjian from destroying documents and other data.

LES MILIEUX D’AFFAIRES SERONT BIEN REPRESENTES DANS LA PROCHAINE LEGISLATURE
Gari

armenews.com
vendredi 16 mars 2012

En depit des engagements repetes du president Serge Sarkissian en
faveur d’une plus grande etancheite entre le monde politique et
les milieux d’affaires, ceux-ci sont assures de figurer en bonne
place aussi sur les bancs de la prochaine Assemblee nationale,
issue des elections legislatives du 6 mai prochain. Des dizaines
d’hommes d’affaires lies etroitement au pouvoir en place et
plus particulièrement au Parti republicain (HHK) du president
Sarkissian sont en effet candidats sur les listes de de parti
largement majoritaire dans le Parlement sortant. L’influence de ces
deputes-businessmen devrait etre renforcee par ceux elus suivant le
mode de scrutin nominal, dont l’opposition avait vainement demande la
suppression, en deposant une demande de reforme du code electoral en
vue de l’extention du mode de scrutin proportionnel a l’ensemble des
elections. Ces hommes d’affaires constituent la très grande majorite
des candidats du HHK dans 33 des 41 sièges du pays elus suivant le
mode de scrutin nominal. L’instance dirigeante du parti a la tete
duquel Serge Sarkissian vient d’etre reelu les a nommes a l’issue
d’une reunion le 14 mars au soir. La liste comprend notamment Samvel
Aleksanian, l’une des plus grosses fortunes d’Armenie dont la societe
d’import export a longtemps beneficie d’un monopole de fait sur les
importations de ble et autres produits agroalimentaires. Parmi ces
33 candidats, certains ne song pas membres du Parlement sortant,
notamment Mher Sedrakian, l’ancien maire controverse de Erevan. Les
media armeniens ont accuse M. Sedrakian d’etre implique dans des
violences visant des militants de l’opposition ou des journalistes.

Phenomène plus inhabituel, les journalistes cherchent a s’inviter dans
l’hemicycle. Une dizaine d’entre eux se portent en effet candidats aux
prochaines elections, dont Margaret Yesayan, du journal independant
Aravot, qui devrait etre sur la liste du HHK, Samvel Farmanian,
l’ancien secretaite de presse de M. Sarkissian qui dirige actuellement
la Television publique d’Armenie.